We are building a new house in NH. It's a 3 bedroom colonial with 2.5 baths and will have well water. Should we use pex or CPVC? The plumber usually uses CPVC and wants to charge an additional $900 for pex? So which is better and is pex really that much more expensive ?

PEX is close in cost to CPVC and easier to install. You do need the connectors and tools. Maybe he feels uncomfortable with PEX. They just built 42 new homes in our N'hood, 100% PEX. It must be cheaper for a builder to spec PEX. They only reason I use CPVC is my comfort level and not having the compression tools but I typically do 'handyman" items , not whole houses.

As far as I can tell, some areas use CPVC on a regular basis so using PEX all of a sudden throws them off kilt a little... same when PEX users are asked to use CPVC.

Which one is better? Well, not exactly an easy answer here. I like CPVC for ease of installation and that fact that the tubing and fittings maintain FULL SIZE throughout the system (fittings don't reduce pipe size and volume). Some PEX, on the other hand (so not all PEX systems), can have fittings that reduce the overall size of the system and therefore the volume of water available at fixtures and this MUST be addressed properly for a system to have good water volume available to fixtures, especially when multiple fixtures are used. PEX is also simple to install, but as Brian mentioned, it usually requires special tools to install.

In my area, we use copper (believe it or not), CPVC and PEX, and I find that the contractors that get the "big" jobs use CPVC as it is cheaper to install, for sure. PEX and copper seem to be used more in remodeling jobs.

I guess, if it was my call, I'd go with the CPVC, especially if it is cheaper and the contractor is more comfortable using it.

Hope that helped some...

Mark

I agree with Mark for the most part, especially when letting the contractor use the materials he feels most comfortable with. In my area we run almost all pex, but that's what we are stocked up for. If a shop is stocked up with cpvc, they most likely aren't going to want to stock up on pex just for one job and visa versa. It really is human nature to stick with what you know works. We had the hardest time biting the bullet and converting over to pex from all copper installs, but I wouldn't go back now.

Thanks for all your replies. Definitely some things to consider. I don't want our house to be the first pex house this guy has ever done!

I asked my GC friend to reno my dad's house with PEX (freezing problems, access problems). It was his first use of it and he had no trouble with it, and wanted to do it because people were starting to ask for it more. He paid something like $80 for the usual tool and $15 for another tool specifically for a specific fitting that the closest lumberyard sold exclusively.
I just wish I had bought some short lengths of grey where it came out of the floor to the thin wallmount European radiators I bought. But that would have meant an elbow and right angles below the floor instead of snaking. And so on. Various little questions to consider and extra time spent learning.